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What do I do after the osprey season? Are you being proactive or reactive?

If Ospreys nest on a utility structure, bridge, ball field lights or in a place that they should not be, the first thing to do is to try and prevent them from getting the nest set. But what happens if you don’t find them in time and they begin to lay eggs? Laws and requirements are different from state to state and country to country. The first thing to do, is to contact your local conservation officer or game management department and let them know. If there is a way to move it without breaking eggs or injuring fledglings the officer will let you know and supervise the effort. If you are successful in moving it, then you must think ahead to next year’s nesting season and place a deterrent on top to prevent them from being able to build a nest on the same structure again.

The one thing that you can be absolutely sure of, after a successful nesting season, is that they will return the next year to the same location barring any unforeseen tragedy to the nesting pair. They will continue to add to the size of the nest year after year. This increased nest size creates more overhang thus coming closer to energized equipment and in turn increasing the possibility of hazards to the Osprey or the utility structure that they have chosen. The Osprey can be killed by electrocution, injured by fire, and their debris can pose any number of potential problems if it falls from their chosen structure onto cars, roads, or even people.

If you are not able to remove the nest, then you must keep an eye on the nest until the fledglings leave and then remove it and replace with a deterrent to prevent any rebuilding. The problem most utilities have is that once they remove the nest they are not thinking about next year’s season until the season actually begins and then it becomes a game of chess with the Osprey. You take a nest down one day and before the tail lights of the utility truck are out of sight the birds are back building. By the next day they have successfully reconstructed the base of the nest then continuing to add debris during the coming days. This is especially true with the older, more mature Ospreys who have been building nests on that same particular structure year after year. Once they have chosen a nesting site, they are set in their ways and will battle with you day after day. It is a vicious cycle; the birds need to follow natures nesting urges and the utility needs to protect their structures and reliability of the electric system. Neither of these needs is wrong, but something must be done to modify the birds’ selective process. They don’t know that it is for their own safety that humans are somewhat interfering.

The key to all of this is, making sure that when you remove a nest, you replace it with “OFF”-Sprey Raptor Deterrent. The great thing about this device is, that it is very durable to wind and weather, and it allows utility workers to be able to see the entire structure without covering any of the working components. If the utility structure needs any work done to it, it is easily removed (by loosening a couple screws) so that the work can be done and when complete can be set back in place to continue protecting the structure.

What this all comes down to, is that Ospreys will come back to the same nesting site year after year and it is up to the utility company and those who have volunteers watching out for the birds to keep an eye out. If you put the deterrent up in the summer after they leave the nest, then you will not have to rush to try and keep them off when the nesting season starts back up the next year. Also, often times these nests are in areas that are not easily accessible year round. Weather and terrain can become a factor when trying to address the problem “when the building time is here” for the Osprey to nest. This proactive measure will allow you to have the luxury of time for most of the summer to make the needed modifications, instead of the short window at the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

Call Power Supply Company, LLC at (423)624-7330 or visit us at www.offsprey.com. facebook.com/off.sprey.deterrent , twitter.com/OffSprey or email us at off-sprey@hotmail.com